Yellow Books

Who knows why, I woke up in the night thinking about that standby on the bottom shelf of a lot of bookcases, National Geographic. I think it is one of the few magazines in the world that folk save and save. My little brother would usually have a stack about knee high by his bed and probably learned most of what he knows about the world from his 'yellowbooks' or as he would say when he was really little, lallow books.

I have about 15 issues from the 20's, 30's and 40's, they are a fascinating visual look at the times. We had a wonderful piece of furniture my mother referred to as the Map Case. About the size of a night stand, it had sliding doors on the front and was stuffed with National Geographic maps..I'd love to have that case today, it had beautiful inlaid veneer and soft curved lines. I wonder what it's original purpose was? I don't think Mother would have bought a nice piece of furniture to hold maps, we lived much too close to the bone for that.

There were also two newspapers in the Map Case.. I don't remember anything about them except they were old and had 4 full pages of comics. Several times a year my big brother and I would get them out and reread them with great pleasure. Television, computers, and video games being unheard of we took our entertainment where we could find it.

Midweek gratitudes
National Geographic, still inspiring people to care about the planet
Odd memories that bubble to the top
Veterinarians